


Whumptober day 1

by probablynotaduck



Series: Whumptober 2020 [1]
Category: The Last of Us (Video Games)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Guilt, Murder, Nightmares, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:42:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26753770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/probablynotaduck/pseuds/probablynotaduck
Summary: “Isaac they’re not Scars!” Abby pulled against her restraints. “They’re not Scars, they’re just kids! Let them go!”
Series: Whumptober 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948600
Kudos: 12





	Whumptober day 1

**Author's Note:**

> Day one of Whumptober. I chose the prompt: waking up restrained.

The first thing Abby noticed was that she couldn’t move. She frowned and tried to jerk her arms forward, but they remained tied above her head. The next thing Abby noticed was the horrible pain in her head, like her skull was being split open. She groaned and slowly cracked her eyes open. 

A campfire blazed in front of her, lighting up her surroundings in the night. She was sitting in the dirt, her back to a wooden pole. Her arms were tied together at the wrists and suspended over her head. She assumed they were fastened to the pole somehow, but couldn’t tilt her head back enough to verify. 

Across the fire from her, Abby could make out two other figures, tied up similarly to her. She squinted against the flickering light, trying to make out the other’s faces. Before she could figure out exactly who they were, a third figure moved into her line of sight. 

“Isaac?” Abby’s throat was hoarse, from dehydration or disuse she wasn’t sure. “Isaac what’s happening?” She coughed and was alarmed to see blood fly out of her mouth. 

Isacc didn’t answer her, instead walking around the campfire to the two other figures. He grabbed one by the hair and jerked them forward as far as their arms would allow. The figure let out a cry of pain and Abby’s eyes widened. “Yara! Isaac don’t! Her arm’s broken!” Abby’s pleas fell on deaf ears. Isaac tugged Yara’s hair again, harshly, before pulling out a knife and cutting the ropes binding her wrists to the pole.

“Stop! Please!” The other figure spoke up and Abby recognized Lev’s voice. He sounded terrified and Abby felt her heart break. She’d promised to protect them. She had to do something!

“Isaac they’re not Scars!” Abby pulled against her restraints. “They’re not Scars, they’re just kids! Let them go!” 

“You’re a fucking traitor.” Isaac turned to Abby, the firelight only deepening his scowl. “You threw yourself in with the scars, and now you’ll die with them too.” Lev cried out wordlessly as Isaac brought his knife to Yara’s throat.

“Abby!” Yara tried to struggle, but cried out in pain as her movements jerked her broken arm. “Abby help, please!”

“Abby!” Now Lev was screaming. “Abby, save her, please!” 

“Isaac stop!” Abby could feel blood beginning to trickle down her wrists where the ropes dug in, but she didn’t stop struggling. “Isaac, she's just a kid! They both are! They’re not Scars! They’re with me! Please, I can explain!”

Isaac just shook his head before quickly jerking his knife across Yara’s throat. Lev screamed and Abby froze, wide eyed, as Isaac dropped Yara to the ground. Yara sputtered, blood pooling around her neck and bubbling out her mouth as she struggled to breath. 

“No!” Abby renewed her efforts to get free. She had to get to Yara, had to stop the bleeding! Part of her knew it was too late but she didn’t care. She couldn’t just let Yara die, not like this.

“Yara!” Lev was sobbing from his place across the fire. “Yara I’m sorry!” Abby could see tears running down Lev’s face and was faintly aware of tears on her own cheeks. How could she have let this happen?

Isaac scoffed before disappearing back into the darkness, leaving Abby and Lev to watch Yara bleed out on the ground. Eventually, Yara stopped spitting up blood, her body gave one last shudder before stilling. She stared, unseeing, up at the stars above them. Abby let her own head fall back against her pole to stare up at the sky. She could hear Lev crying still, but it was faint. She could barely hear him over the rushing sound in her head. Suddenly, everything went silent.

Abby dropped her head down to look forward again. She was instantly alarmed and on alert when she saw the space in front of her had changed. The fire was gone, and so was Lev. She was left staring at Yara’s body, at her bloody and pale face. 

“Yara I’m so sorry.” She didn’t know what else to say.

“You’re sorry?” Yara’s voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. She sounded distorted, her voice grating and hollow as it echoed around Abby. “I’m so sorry.” Yara mimicked Abby’s words cruelly. “Sorry won’t bring me back!” In an instant Yara was standing in front of Abby, her throat gaping open at Abby’s eye level. 

Abby tried to shut her eyes and turn away but Yara grabbed her, forcing her to face forward. “Look at me!” She screeched. “Look what you did to me!” 

“It wasn’t me!” Abby pleaded. “Yara it wasn’t me! I tried to save you. It was an ambush, it wasn’t my fault!”

“Wasn’t it!?” Yara stepped back from Abby. “Look at your hands.”

“My hands?” Abby looked down at her now unbound hands. They were covered in blood, and holding a gun. “What?”

“Look what you did to me!” Yara screamed again, blood flying out of her mouth with her words. “You killed me and now you’re going to kill my brother!”

Abby watched in horror as her arms acted without her command. She watched them raise the gun and fire into Yara’s chest. Yara fell to the ground and Abby screamed. This wasn’t right, this wasn’t what happened! 

“Abby!”

Abby looked up, searching for the source of the voice. It was faint and hoarse, but sounded like Lev.

“Abby! Abby wake up!”

Abby’s eyes snapped open. 

“Abby?” Lev sounded half dead, and with a sinking heart, Abby remembered why. The Rattlers, the escape attempt gone wrong. She and Lev had been left to die, strung up on pillars by the sea. “Abby are you awake?” Lev was barely audible above the roar of the waves.

“I’m awake.” She groaned. The salty air chapped her lips. “It was just a dream.” She’d been having nightmares ever since they left Seattle. Some nights it was Manny, some nights Owen and Mel, and some nights Yara and Lev. On the really bad nights it was Joel. “Don’t try to talk. Save your strength.” Abby let her eyes slip shut again. Maybe they’d be lucky, and today would be the day the two of them finally died.


End file.
